Reading time: Less than 1 minute
I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a metaphor from British writer Salley Vickers.
I may have introduced you to Salley Vickers recently, when a word from her recent book, piebald, became my word of the week.
She’s making a return appearance today as a result of a metaphor from the same book, The Cleaner of Chartres.
The metaphor is simplicity itself:
Inès Nezat raised two scimitar eyebrows.
As you likely already know, a scimitar is is a backsword or sabre with a curved blade. But I find the image masterful when it comes to describing a woman’s eyebrows.
I especially appreciate the way she’s decided to use a metaphor rather than a simile (an expression containing the words “like” or “as.”) It’s so much more dramatic this way.
